Key Takeaways
- President Joe Biden’s executive order on voter registration has been met with opposition from some officials, including Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson.
- The order has been criticized for potentially allowing ineligible felons to register to vote, which could compromise state sovereignty.
- The November elections are seen as a critical moment for states to push back against the order and protect their sovereignty.
Washington: Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson is demanding that the Justice Department put a stop to an executive order by President Joe Biden that has allegedly been used to register ineligible felons to vote, Fox News reported.
“These efforts are an intrusion into state matters and a misuse of federal revenue and resources. In addition, it appears that these efforts have led to agencies under your charge attempting to register people to vote, including potentially ineligible felons, and to co-opt state and local officials into accomplishing this goal,” Watson was quoted as saying in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Monday.
Watson expressed concern in the letter that illegal immigrants in the Mississippi prison system could potentially be registered to vote, the report said.
Watson also sought documentation from the Justice Department as to which prisons in Mississippi they have been working in, what exactly the federal officers have been doing there, and which prisoners they have been talking to, the report said.
The secretary of state emphasised that it is incumbent upon all US states to push back as hard as they can prior to the November elections, given the importance of the vote for the future of the United States or “what we have left of it,” the report said.
Biden’s executive order No. 14019 sought to turn the Justice Department agencies away from law enforcement by redirecting their efforts towards voter registration, the report quoted Watson as saying.
Biden signed the executive order in 2021, and his administration promoted it as an attempt to combat racial injustice and tasked federal agencies with considering ways to expand citizens’ opportunities to register to vote, the report added.
